Venom
United Kingdom, 1979–now
Newcastle band formed in 1979 whose raw, satanic speed-metal albums Welcome to Hell and Black Metal (1982) were so extreme they named a genre. Crude, fast and evil, Venom are the direct progenitors of black, thrash and death metal alike.
MusicRoots documents 2 artists who influenced Venom and 4 artists Venom influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced Venom?
- Motörhead — Venom fused Motörhead's dirty speed with Black Sabbath's evil to create the blueprint for extreme metal.
- Black Sabbath — Black Sabbath's dark, heavy riffing is the doom foundation beneath Venom's satanic speed-metal.
Which artists did Venom influence?
- Bathory — Quorthon built Bathory directly on Venom — their crude, satanic speed-metal is the seed of Bathory's black metal.
- Celtic Frost — Celtic Frost grew out of Hellhammer's worship of Venom's primitive extremity, then pushed it toward the avant-garde.
- Mayhem — Mayhem took their name from a Venom song and built Norwegian black metal on Venom's satanic extremity.
- Darkthrone — Venom's crude proto-black-metal is part of the primitive lineage Darkthrone embraced.